


I'm Thankful For You

by orphan_account



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Draven Archeron, F/M, Melantha Archeron, Thanksgiving, and complete goals, babies' first thanksgiving, elriel babies, in this au Vassa and Mor & Lucien and Jurian are married
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:08:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28725615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Azriel huffed a laugh over the phone, “The babies are crying, the food is burning, the dogs are fighting and you’re calling me to see what time my family’s coming at?”~Aka just some Elriel + babies Modern AU fluff for Thanksgiving :)
Relationships: Elain Archeron/Azriel
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	I'm Thankful For You

A harsh cry sounded through the halls of the otherwise silent household.

Elain Archeron hummed gently as she rocked her wailing daughter, stroking the soft golden-brown curls on Melantha’s little head as she tried to lull the baby back to sleep.

Just as the little girl started to mellow, Elain heard another cry come from the nursery.

The Archeron sighed. It was foolish of her to think she could pull Melantha out of the room without waking her brother in turn. She could only hope that Melantha would not begin to cry as well for moral support.

One of the many joys of having twins.

She rushed over to the nursery to see Draven tangled up in his blanket, tears pooling from his soft brown eyes as sobs wracked his tiny body.

“Oh no little love,” she crooned, quickly placing Mela, who fortunately remained quiet, back into the crib before moving over to her son.

“Looks like you’re stuck,” she sang, untangling the baby who immediately began cooing once freed, kicking his little feet up in the air and giggling.

Elain let out a sigh of relief. The children were fairly easy babies, Melantha seeming to inherit her father’s generally stoic persona while Draven obtained his mother’s unbridled cheerfulness.

It was simply the fact there were two of them that caused her and Azriel to sometimes feel in over their heads.

Elain wished more than anything that she could call Nuala and Cerridwen over for an extra hand, but she’d hate to disturb them on Thanksgiving.

For now, Elain was on her own.

She had managed to turn in her blueprints for the Royal Garden project early, giving her the rest of the week off to spend with her family. Azriel, however, hadn’t been as lucky.

Apparently, Rhys had received a new case for the law firm he couldn’t ignore and therefore chose to pull his brothers into the “sheer agony of being away from their families on today of all days”.

Elain smirked as she remembered the earful Nesta had given Rhys when she learned Cassian would be working late on Thanksgiving.

She didn’t really understand Rhysand’s reasoning anyways, seeing that he and Feyre both ran the firm as co-managing partners and therefore would be spending the entire day together with their 6-year-old son, Arien, no doubt sitting obediently beside them.

It never ceased to amaze her how the young boy could be so composed at such a rambunctious age.

Her musings were cut off as she heard a timer ring from downstairs.

Shoot. The turkey.

She grabbed the baby carrier, knowing the children wouldn’t be falling back asleep anytime soon, and quickly strapped Draven in as she picked up Melantha and rushed down the stairs to the kitchen.

She placed Mela into her baby blue highchair before setting Draven in his pale pink one.

Along with a semblance of their personalities, the twins had also inherited their parents’ favorite colors, gender stereotypes be damned.

Elain smiled softly as Melantha let out a pleased gurgle from her chair, causing Draven to give a joyful clap to his sister.

The noise woke the family’s two gold retrievers, River and Olive, who had been sleeping in the living room. The dogs raced up to the children, chasing around each highchair as the babies let out delighted squeals.

Elain’s heart warmed at the sight, only to abruptly stop as she remembered why she ran downstairs in the first place.

She rushed over to the oven, heart pounding as she ripped it open to pull out the turkey and assess the damage.

She let out a defeated sigh as she took in the slightly charred edges of the cooked bird. Drat.

If this was just a simple Friday dinner with their friends, no one would have cared. Lucien would have even gone as far as to say he preferred the extra crisp. But this wasn’t just any dinner and they weren’t having just anyone over. 

Thanksgiving was the only holiday they got to do with Azriel’s family, given that Christmas was strictly spent with their brothers and sisters and Azriel’s family didn’t celebrate Easter.

Ever since she and Azriel started living together, they had spent every Thanksgiving with his family at their house up north.

Elain looked forward to going to their home for Thanksgiving each year. She loved joking around with Azriel’s mother, Miriam, and his stepfather, Hyllus, as they exchanged funny stories over the dinner table. Not to mention, Azriel’s mother kept the most beautiful garden.

However, with the twins a little under a year old, they decided it’d be best for Elain and Azriel to host Thanksgiving this year. A choice Elain was steadily regretting.

Sure, Miriam had come over many times before, but this was different. This was a holiday. And Elain needed everything to be perfect so her mother-in-law could see what an amazing partner she was for Azriel, just as he was for her.

Miriam had never pressured Elain into needing to prove herself, quite the opposite, but Elain had always looked up to the older woman and wanted to make her proud.

Which was why a charred turkey would simply not do.

Elain contemplated the idea of talking Cassian into giving her his – Afterall, her brother-in-law only lived a few blocks away - but sighed as she remembered that Cassian was also trapped at the firm with his brothers and therefore wouldn’t be making his notorious turkey dinner this year.

No wonder Nesta was so pissed at Rhysand.

Suddenly a ringing began to fill the room once again and it took Elain a moment to realize it was her cellphone.

Elain dodged River as she rushed around searching for her mobile.

The dogs had begun barking at one another over heaven knows what, causing the children to start to cry again.

She rushed over to the babies once she found her phone, placing a silicone tree from one of her past diagrams in front of each of them to distract them from the dogs.

Elain looked down at her phone and saw Azriel’s name flashing on the screen. She took a moment to admire his contact picture. It was the classic napping photo with him holding Mela and Drav in each arm as their tiny fists clung onto his shirt.

She smiled and quickly answered the call before it could go to voicemail. 

“Hello?” She said, cursing herself for how out of breath she sounded.

Her self-damnation continued as she felt her knees go weak at the deep timber of her husband’s voice over the line, “Hey love, everything alright?”

Olive gave an irritated bark to River, causing the younger dog to growl crossly in return.

Elain sighed, “Yes, just burnt the turkey is all. May have upset the dogs.”

“You’ve burnt the turkey?”

“Lightly charred. Practically the same thing. The house is currently on fire.”

He chuckled, “Sounds dangerous.”

She smiled, “Not at all. Everything is completely under control.”

“Oh yeah? What about the two gremlins?”

“Our children are being perfect angels,” Elain said, wincing as Melantha let out another wailing cry.

“I meant the dogs.”

“I knew that.” Elain said, dodging River and Olive on her way over to the turkey.

Azriel snorted, “Sure you did.”

“When is your mother coming again?” Elain hummed, scrutinizing the charred bird with disapproval.

Azriel huffed a laugh over the phone, “The babies are crying, the food is burning, the dogs are fighting and you’re calling me to see what time my family’s coming at?”

“Yes.”

“Still got 3 more hours. But lucky for you, I’m heading home right now and can help you with everything before she shows up.”

Elain paused, turning away from her failure in shock, “You’re coming home? I thought you were supposed to be there to join in Rhysand’s self-proclaimed suffering?”

“Rhys decided to have mercy on our sorry asses and gave us the rest of the day off.”

“How generous of him.”

Elain could practically hear him smirking as he said, “I think the strongly worded email he received from Nesta about her law firm buying his if Cassian wasn’t home in 2 hours may have had something to do with it.”

Elain laughed, “Say what you want about us Archerons, we take the holidays very seriously.”

“That we do.”

Her pulse spiked at his words. Even after all these years, she couldn’t get over the love she felt whenever Azriel wore her family’s name in pride.

She remembers the night when he asked her for it.

It was years ago, deep into their engagement. They were still entangled with one another from their previous love making as they stared up at the ceiling, her head resting on his chest as his hand softly stroked up and down her back. 

“Every time I hear my last name, I remember my father and his family.” He explained, his scarred hand halting at the mention of those horrible people.

Elain had moved her head to place a gentle kiss over his heart. The action seeming to soothe him enough to continue.

“It brings me back to my life before Rhys and Cass. Before anyone.” He paused, his eyes remaining on the ceiling as she studied his profile.

“Yet each time I hear Archeron, I think of you and the happiness you have brought into my life.” He turned to her finally, smiling almost wistfully.

“I wouldn’t mind imagining your face each time someone calls my name.”

She hadn’t known it then, hadn’t deemed it possible, but the love she had felt for him in that moment was nothing to what she felt now, years later. And, impossible as it seemed, Elain knew in a few years she would be looking back to her in this very moment and thinking the same thing.

That’s how it was with Azriel. Each night she fell asleep beside him, thinking it couldn’t be possible to love a person more than this, only to wake up to his beautiful smile and be proven wrong.  
“Is that foolish?” He had then asked softly, his voice uncharacteristically nervous.

Her heart broke at his need to ask, to think that she wouldn’t give him anything. That she wouldn’t give him everything.

Elain kissed him deeply, pulling him on top of her and holding him close.

“Never,” she gasped against his lips, “I would be honored for you to take my name when we get married.”

She reveled in the shiver that ran through Azriel’s body at the mention of their wedding day.

They pulled away slightly to stare at one another with matching grins, both of them giddy with the thought of them soon being wed.

“Besides,” she said, kissing him again, drawing out a low groan from his lips as the grip on his hair tightened. “Azriel Archeron has a nice ring to it.”

She pulled herself to the present before she could recall what he had done next. She instead focused the phone in her hand and her husband who no doubt knew exactly what his little comment had done to her.

“You know you can’t say things like that to me without warning,” she complained half-heartedly, “I get distracted.”

Elain knew Azriel was grinning as he said, “My dearest apologizes, how about I make it up to you by helping with dinner?”

“Please,” Elain sighed, leaning against the kitchen island.

Fortunately the children had calmed down, Draven babbling at the two dogs as if convincing them to cease their fighting. Yet the idea of having an extra hand with everything that had yet to be done made her body sag in relief.

“How far away are yo–”

She was cut off by the noise of the front door unlocking and turned to face her grinning husband.

“Not far,” he said, ending their call with a click.

The dogs instantly ceased their barking, much to Draven’s delight. They ran up to Azriel, tails wagging, as he laughed and scratched them both on the head before walking over to his wife and sweeping her up into a hug.

Elain let out a pleased hum as she wrapped her arms around his neck, happy to have Azriel back in her embrace.

She pulled back and took a minute to ogle her husband. He looked positively dashing in his work clothes, the form-fitting suit clinging to his muscled figure.

Elain bit her lip before glancing up to find Azriel smirking at her.

He put his hand to the back of her neck, pulling her close so their lips were only a breath away.

“I missed you,” he whispered before bringing her mouth to his.

She let out a blissful sigh as she returned the kiss, showing him how much she returned the sentiment.

They eventually broke away as Melantha, ever the observant one, let out a delighted shriek at the sight of her father with Draven soon joining in on her squeals.

“And I missed you both,” Azriel crooned, pressing his lips to Elain’s forehead before moving to greet the two giggling babies and smothering them with kisses. 

He lifted the two of them up in each arm - an ability Elain envied greatly – and smiled as Melantha moved up to pat his cheeks while Draven gleefully tugged at his shirt.

“Daddy missed you both. Yes he did, yes he did,” Azriel said, the higher pitch in his deep voice almost comical as he looked down at his children, “Were you two good for mommy? Were Drav and Mela good for mommy?”

Elain tittered at the thought of Azriel’s clients seeing the “big bag lawyer” (as Amren had titled him, despite being one herself) cooing at his 11-month children.

He blew a raspberry on Mela’s nose, causing her to let out a squeal, as he nuzzled the soft dark curls on Draven’s head.

Elain moved over to the three, kissing her husband on the cheek as he passed their daughter over to her and moved to properly hold his mini-me.

She gazed into Melantha’s beautiful hazel eyes, glancing up to see identical ones looking at her expectantly.

Azriel grinned, “Alright, what are making?”

Elain smiled simply, “A turkey.”

He have a startled laugh, “W-What?” 

After much convincing from Azriel, Elain agreed that serving a slightly charred turkey at Thanksgiving would not make his mother detest her for the rest of eternity and she begrudgingly allowed it among the other dishes she had prepared.

Fortunately, all the cooking had been done, leaving Azriel to help her with just the cleaning and preparation portion. The next few hours were spent setting the table, getting them and the twins dressed, and bringing out the dishes to the dining room.

Once she had set the stupid bird on the table, Azriel pulled her into the living room for some time to “unwind”.

The room was close enough to the kitchen that the children, who were now preoccupied with their toys, weren’t completely left on their own. Yet it was far enough away that they couldn’t hear Elain’s moans as Azriel bent her over the coffee table.

By the time Azriel’s mother burst through the door, startling the young couple apart and making them thankful for their hidden location – they always forgot they had given her the spare key for emergencies – everything was ready to go.

The night was filled with laugher as Miriam gushed over the twins and pointedly squished her son’s cheeks together saying, “You’re still my little baby,” despite Azriel being over a foot taller than the older woman.

She listened intently when Elain told her about her newest project, causing the young woman to blush as she raved about how her daughter-in-law was such a successful landscape architect. 

Hyllus even commented on how delicious the turkey was, causing Azriel to flash Elain a smug grin.

Hours later, long after Miriam and Hyllus had left, the young parents had finally managed to set the children down soundly after the hours of excitement.

Elain chuckled as she watched Melantha turn around in her sleep and unceremoniously roll on top of her brother, who didn’t so much as stir at his sister’s cuddliness.

The twins were wearing the festive onesies their brothers and sisters had gifted Elain and Azriel for the twin’s first Thanksgiving.

On the onesies was a big rainbow turkey with I’m Thankful for my Aunts, for Melantha, and I’m Thankful for my Uncles, for Draven, written in large, multi-colored letters.

Elain had assumed their siblings had known the phrases were meant to refer to single-sex couples and chose to get them ironically.

Yet when Cassian commented how they thought the rainbow-theme was perfect because it matched what Feyre had painted on the twin’s nursey, she realized that was not the case.

Nonetheless, the twins looked adorable in them and, needless to say, the Spellcleavers and Athelwoods were big fans as they teased their oblivious friends.

It was not long before Elain felt Azriel’s warmth wrap around her from behind as they both gazed down at their beautiful children.

“What are you thankful for?” He jested, peppering teasing kisses down her neck.

She turned in his arms, smiling up at him and feeling her breath catch at the raw affection she saw in his beautiful hazel eyes.

He brought a scarred hand up to cup her cheek and she turned her face to gently kiss his palm. Elain smiled at how he no longer flinched at the movement, showing how far they had come.

She thought of the life they had made together, the happiness they had created. Despite everything they went through, it had brought them here, to this moment, in each other’s arms.

It was a few seconds before Elain could ensure she could give her answer without crying. 

“You Az,” she whispered, treasuring his responding smile and kissing him softly.

“I’m thankful for you.”

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed! :)
> 
> follow my Tumblr if you want more elriel stuff @elriel-incorrect-quotes


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